KENT, OHIO – Sophomore Mitch Peterson put back a Kent State miss with two-tenths of a second remaining to give the Flashes a wild 73-71 victory over Western Michigan Tuesday at the MAC Center.
With the win, Kent State evened its record at 9-9 on the season and is 3-2 in Mid-American Conference play.
It’s a great team win and . . .
Senior Kevin Zabo led all scorers with 23 points. Pippen added 16, hitting four-of-five shots from three-point range. Sophomore Adonis De La Rosa had 11 points and 12 rebounds, while junior Jaylin Walker added 10.
Western Michigan (10-7, 2-2) suffered its second defeat in the last three games despite coming back from a pair 18-point deficit in both halves.
“The numbers kind of told the story (for us) “WMU head man Stave Hawkins said. “Coming into the game, Kent State was not a good three-point shooting team and they went eight-for-eight to start.”
“In the second half, we only went 16-of-24 from the free throw line. I thought those two areas were the difference in a one-point game.”
Josh Davis led the Broncos with 16 points with five rebounds, two assists and a steal. Brandon Johnson added 14 with six boards. Reggie Jones came off the bench with 11 and seven rebounds, while senior Thomas Wilder had 10.
After both teams traded the lead, KSU took the moved out on a three by Pippel from the left arc at the 14:33 mark. “He had a great start”. Senderoff said of Pippen, who made his first threes in MAC play this season.
The Flashes first 18 point lead came at the 3:44 mark when Walker capped a 13-0 run with a three from the right arc. That put the hosts up 42-24 and they went into halftime with a 12-point advantage 45-33.
After play resumed, the Broncos saw their deficit go back to 18 points, 55-37, following a three by Zabo from the right corner with 16:12 remaining.
KSU kept its lead in double digits before WMU started to make a big push. That began with a 7-2 spurt, highlighted by a conventional three-point play by Michael flowers and a layup by Johnson to get the deficit down to five 63-58 with 5:23 remaining.
After the flashes pushed the lead out to eight 68-60 on a slam by De La Rosa, the visitors from Kalamazoo used a 7-0 run to cut the margin to a single point, 68-67, with 1:41 remaining thanks to a pair of layups by Davis, who had 10 in the second half.
Zabo, who had 11 in the second half for KSU, hit a three with 1:09 remaining to get the margin back to four 71-67 at the 1:09 mark. However, to their credit, the Broncos did not quit. They used a pair of baskets by reserve Reggie Jones, the first on a driving layup and the second was courtesy of a goaltending call with 9.9 second remaining to draw even.
The winning play was started by Zabo as he drove to the basket and missed. Pippen got the offensive rebound and missed a putback. Peterson got another offensive board and his shot in front of the rim fell through.
The Broncos final play began underneath their own basket. With :00.2 Western got the ball to midcourt but could not get off a shot in time.
When asked about his winning basket, Peterson said, “A little bit of being in the right spot at the right time, but also reading the play. I was kind of hoping Danny (Pippen) would make it but the ball came my way and I made it.”
Statistically speaking both teams cooled off in the second half as KSU went just 11-of-31 from, the field (35.5 percent) and 43.5% (27-of-621) over the 40 minutes. WMU was just 26-of-56 from the floor for the game and 3-of-17 from beyond the arc.
KSU won the rebound battle narrowly, 35-33, but had 14 second chance points, including the pair from Peterson for the winning basket. The Flashes held a 15-9 advantage in the assists department, led by senior Jalen Avery, who had nine.
WMU had its chances to take the lead in the second half but going 16-of-24 from the free throw line, especially splitting pairs of foul shots early in the period, proved costly.
In addition, Wilder one of the top scorers in the conference, was held to his lowest total of the young MAC season. He has scored in double figures in 16 of the Broncos 17 games.
Both teams return to action on Saturday with Kent State heading to Toledo to face a Rockets team who took over first place in the West with a 95-57 rout of Ohio Tuesday in Athens.
“We have played well to get to 3-2 (in MAC lay). However, the road is a challenge, especially playing a team like Toledo in their building” Senderoff said.
WMU heads to Buffalo where it will face the 5-0 Broncos, who defeated Northern Illinois Tuesday at home 95-67.